Martin Scorsese

After the frenzy and fireworks of Vinyl’s premiere two-hour episode directed by Martin Scorsese, the new HBO series Vinyl has geared down to a single-hour format with a bit less star power in the director’s chair, this time by veteran television director Allan Coulter (best known for his work on Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos). The second episode has downshifted to refine its plot-lines for further developments. The show still excels at its re-creations – the Dolls, Robert Plant and now the Velvets have all been impeccably re-done, revealing one of the best art departments working today – but at Vinyl’s heart is a struggle to keep music alive amidst a overwhelming sea of compromises.

While I guess every episode can’t be directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, there is still enough going on in Vinyl to keep me watching, even if the second episode didn’t have the punch or consistent focus of the premiere.

The new Golden Age of Television carries on with the first episode of the new series Vinyl, which premiered Sunday evening on HBO Canada. Set in 1973 at the apex of the then booming record industry in New York City, the premiere uses the real-life event of the collapse of the Mercer Arts Center as its dramatic fulcrum. The characters who populate this urban inferno are shockingly cynical and debased. The record industry in the mid-1970s revealed humanity at its most decadent, with fraudulent business practices melding with ruthless exploitation, all peppered with relentless drug use, manic sexual practices and out-of-control personal behaviors.

The resonance of these stories – based in hard-luck narratives from the likes of Tommy James, who states in his autobiography that Morris Levy owed him 40 million dollars in unpaid royalties – powers what promises to be the long, twisted and engrossing plot lines of Vinyl. The first episode sports a shocking, drown-out murder, along with domestic discord and the kind of drug-fueled excess that will undoubtedly bring on an avalanche of dramatic possibilities.